Probe agencies should question CM’s daughter: Surendran

He also seeks resignation of Pinarayi Vijayan as Chief Minister

BJP State president K. Surendran has demanded that the investigation agencies interrogate the daughter of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the light of the emerging allegations in the LIFE Mission (Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment) commission scam.

At a news conference here on Monday, Mr. Surendran said that Mr. Vijayan should also relinquish his post and face a probe as his family members were allegedly involved in securing kickbacks in the project to build houses for families without land or housing. The destruction of files in a fire at the Secretariat was intended to erase incriminating evidence on the role of the office of the Chief Minister in the case, he alleged.

He said that the probe into the fire incident that occurred in the thick of controversies related to the gold-smuggling case reached nowhere so far. Also the Chief Minister’s Office had not yet parted with the CCTV footage to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which was probing the gold-smuggling case, Mr. Surendran said.

The BJP leader also alleged that the wife of Minister for Industries E.P. Jayarajan had reached the Kannur branch of Kerala Bank violating the COVID-19 quarantine rules only to shift the contributions their son had received as commission in the LIFE Mission project. The NIA and the Kerala Police should probe whether it was gold, cash or documents that she had withdrawn from the locker of the bank.

Mr. Surendran also alleged that some Kozhikode-based religious organisations had received illegal funds from abroad. That was why the organisations were getting rattled when the involvement of the Minister for Higher Education K.T. Jaleel in the gold- smuggling case was becoming clearer, he said.